


Beautiful

by caimani



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band), One Direction (Band)
Genre: Cute, Humor, Multi, Slow Build, Superheroes, Team Work Makes The Dream Work, Villain of the Week, and it will take some time but they will fall in love and get together it'll be sweet, basically this is kinda like Sailor Moon but their powers are from magic flowers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-30
Updated: 2019-08-19
Packaged: 2020-07-26 00:28:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20034844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caimani/pseuds/caimani
Summary: Getting unexpectedly drafted by a magical flower super-force with vague instructions to "use your power wisely" translates quickly to "fight flower supervillains who decide to misuse their new powers." It would have been nice if the superpowers came with a How-To manual though.At least they're meeting some new friends along the way. Who knows what might blossom from this?





	1. Beginner's Luck

**Author's Note:**

  * For [keithundead](https://archiveofourown.org/users/keithundead/gifts), [eyesofheaven](https://archiveofourown.org/users/eyesofheaven/gifts), [cityinagarden](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cityinagarden/gifts).
**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Calum isn't expecting to come across a supervillain in the park. Thankfully, he meets the right people at the right time.

Superheroes are awesome. 

Calum spent a lot of time when he was a kid imagining what he’d be like as a superhero. Who hadn’t? It was like a universal thing. In his make-believe games, he was always dressed up in a really cool costume with unstoppable powers, fighting villains who were wearing equally cool (but sinister) costumes; capes flying in the wind. Saving the day, seeing his picture in newspapers, having a large club of adoring fans. That’s what it’s supposed to be all about.

His current reality is… not quite what he imagined.

His costume is certainly a surprise. A light daisy floral print button up paired with a… a glittery yellow and green skirt, with daisy-printed tights. It’s going to take a while for Calum to get used to that. Or maybe power which triggered the unexpected clothes-transformation just got things a little mixed up this first time. He’s also got a mask over his eyes and a powerful sensation vibrating in his chest, but he doesn’t really feel much like a hero.

Especially not now, while he’s standing about ten meters away from a scowling man who just withered a tree away into a pile of rotten wood and leaves.

The villain— who’s wearing a similar chrysanthemum-print shirt with a dark orange skirt combination— grabs at the crumbling remains of the tree and prepares to throw it at Calum. 

“Are you going to try and stop me too?” he bellows. 

Calum flinches and teleports before the debris can hit him. At least his superpower is coming to him fairly naturally. He’s disoriented for a second, and then he panics— he’s even closer to the chrysanthemum guy than before. So he teleports again, trying to urge his power to move him somewhere further away. 

Just minutes ago, the force inside him transformed him as he was heading out to meet up with his friends Michael and Luke so they could figure out the mystical powers they’d suddenly all received a few days ago. Calum doesn’t even know if Michael or Luke are here now; he’s just trying to avoid getting touched by the guy who can cause things to decay with a single touch. Or, you know, crushed by the stuff he keeps throwing at Calum.

“Stay out of my way!” the guy says, and there’s another crash of dead wood that’s far too close for comfort. Calum teleports again, frantic.

How is he supposed to fight like this? Superheroes in the movies always made it seem a whole lot easier. Calum peers carefully around the corner of a tall fountain. The chrysanthemum guy is grabbing at a marble statue. In seconds, it crumbles to pieces. 

“Perfect…” Chrysanthemum says.

“On three, we rush him, okay?” comes a new voice, right next to Calum.

Calum whirls, nearly falling onto his back. Someone catches him and pulls him upright. 

It’s another guy dressed like him and Chrysanthemum, except there are purple flowers on this new guy’s shirt and tights, and his miniskirt is a dark purple. He’s got nearly white-blonde hair and a matching purple mask over his eyes. He leans a bit closer to Calum.

“One—”

“Wait!” Calum says. “I’m not going to— did you see what that guy can do?”

“Yeah lad,” the new guy says with an Irish accent. He looks up from the safety of the fountain, and then kneels back down next to Calum. “I had to put up with him going on and on about his plans when we transformed in front of each other. Sort of got myself stuck in me own crystal for a minute, so I had to run to catch up with him. Hey, nice to see another flower hero’s on the job, innit?”

Calum nods. “Yeah.”

“So on three, yeah?” 

“Uh—”

Unfortunately, the purple flower guy counts off rapidly and sprints around the corner before Calum can interject. Calum gets up and follows, but comes to a halt when he sees Chrysanthemum reducing another, much large tree to rotted mulch. How the hell is he supposed to stop that? 

His ally is charging headlong at the guy. “Hey!” he yells. “I told you you weren’t gonna get away with it!”

Chrysanthemum turns around and crosses his arms. “You again,” he says, unimpressed. 

Calum’s new friend (maybe? Calum only really spoke to him for a few seconds but he seems to be trying to stop Chrysanthemum) stops and flails his arms around wildly. At first, Calum’s not sure what he’s trying to do, but then giant purple-tinted crystals spontaneously shoot up from the ground, forming a triangular prism… around the wrong guy.

“Aw fuck me, not again!” he cries out. Calum’s new ally slams his fists against his own crystal walls to no avail.

Chrysanthemum laughs. “Is that all you can do?” As the other guy gestures wildly inside the prison of his own creation, Chrysanthemum turns and starts running away from the scene. 

Calum braces himself and tries to focus on the sensation of power inside him. He looks at a specific spot nearby and tries to will himself to teleport there. It works. He tries again. It’s a success again.

He looks at the tight space inside the crystal prism and swallows back a twinge of fear before teleporting again. And he’s inside the tight purple crystal pyramid.

“Whoa!” the purple flower guy exclaims. “How’d you get in here?”

“I can teleport,” Calum explains.

“Fuck yeah! That’s so cool!” 

Calum grabs his new friend’s arm. “I’m not sure if this is going to work, but first time’s the charm, right?”

“Huh?”

He teleports again, hoping desperately that his impulse plan will work. A second later, both of them are standing on the ground just outside of the crystal walls. 

“Nice work!” the purple flower guy says, high fiving Calum enthusiastically. “C’mon, let’s catch up with him!”

He takes off at a run again and Calum follows, a few steps behind. What else can he do? Maybe he can figure out how to grab Chrysanthemum and teleport him somewhere where he can’t hurt anyone. Damn, he was really hoping to practice a little more with his new powers so he’d know things like how far he can teleport and how many things and people he can carry with him. He’ll just have to keep winging it.

“What’s your flower?” Calum asks as the two of them run.

“It’s a foxglove,” his ally shouts back. “I’m guessing yours is a daisy?”

“Yeah.” He should probably actually introduce himself to the foxglove guy, now that they’ve got a moment and they’re talking to each other. Before they run into another fight with Chrysanthemum, anyway. “You can call me, uh. Teleportation Man.”

Foxglove bursts into laughter. “Alright? I’m Niall. And y’can call me Niall.”

“Oh.” They’re just doing their names. Calum feels kind of silly now. “I’m Calum, actually. Please don’t call me Teleportation Man.”

“It’s a cool superpower,” Niall says. They can see Chrysanthemum in the distance, using his decay touch on a whole bus as its passengers flee, screaming. Pedestrians and passersby are adding to the chaos as well. It doesn’t look good.

Niall puts on another burst of speed and continues, “Mine is crystals, but I can’t figure out how to make ‘em do what I want. How do you make yours work?”

“Um.” Instinct? Concentration? Guessing? Calum’s spared from having to figure out a satisfying answer, because Chrysanthemum catches sight of them. 

“You two again!” he yells.

“Yeah!” Niall yells back. “Us two again! We’re giving you one chance to stop what you’re doing before we stop you!”

“How are we going to stop him?” Calum whispers to Niall.

Chrysanthemum laughs. He’s got a good evil laugh, Calum’s got to admit. “Just you two? What can you possibly do? I can destroy you with a single touch! I’ll use your remains to fertilize my cabbage patch!” He waves his hands in the air and takes a menacing step towards them. Calum takes half a step back, intimidated.

“He’s lying,” a familiar voice says. Calum and Niall both turn to see Luke— in a glittery red tulip-decorated outfit. Complete with his own miniskirt. Calum’s starting to suspect whatever magic flower force is in charge of designing their costumes doesn’t believe in gendered clothing. At least they’ve got shorts and tights on underneath.

Luke joins up with them. “His power doesn’t work against people. He tried.”

“How do you know?” Niall says. 

“I, uh, read his mind. I can read minds,” Luke explains, almost apologetically. “But it’s okay, it’s only when I focus on a— okay, I need to think of something else— sorry. Still figuring it out. Oh fuck!” He lunges forwards, pushing Calum and Niall down against the ground. Not even a second later, something huge flies over their heads and crashes to the ground. The three of them get to their feet and turn back to face their villain a short distance away.

“It doesn’t matter! Nobody’s going to stop me!” Chrysanthemum yells. “I have the power of decay! I will bring this whole city to ruin just by touching it!” To demonstrate, he grabs a nearby lamp post that rapidly falls to rusted pieces.

Calum winces. 

“It’s alright, I’ve got this!” Niall says. He flails his arms around again and six chunks of purple crystal burst out of the ground in random spots around them. However, none of them are any larger than a medium-sized dog. “Damn it! How does this bloody work?” 

Chrysanthemum flings pieces of rusted metal at them and Calum grabs onto both Luke and Niall and teleports before the debris can hit them. 

“So mind-reading, teleportation, and crystals that won’t do what you want,” Luke says. “I, uh, I hate to say it, but I d—”

“Then don’t say it,” Niall says, breaking away from the group and trying his crystal stuff again. Dozens of tiny pebble-sized crystals pop up through the asphalt around Chrysanthemum. “I’ll get it! Nothing like a bit of pressure to motivate you, eh?” He waves his arms again and the tiny crystals recede back into the ground. “No!”

“You’re pathetic!” Chrysanthemum laughs. “I think I’ll take pity on you and bury you first!”

“I’m not— take that back!” Niall says. He does a new gesture with his hands and the pebble crystals return, slightly bigger this time.

Calum looks around in a panic. Luke looks just as frustrated as Calum feels. “What are we supposed to do?” Calum says. He can hear sirens coming their way, but he doubts anything the police can do will have an impact on Chrysanthemum. 

As if to demonstrate, the villain stalks over to the sidewalk to grab a sign post. He tears it out of the ground with the aid of his powers and swings it at Niall. Instead of running, Niall whirls his arms around again. Calum’s heart jumps into his throat.

But the impact he’s expecting doesn’t happen. The sign slams into a thick wall of purple crystal that’s just formed in front of Niall. Niall lets out a cry of triumph. 

“I did it!”

Chrysanthemum drops the sign with a roar of anger. He slaps a hand against the crystal wall and it dissolves into purple sand under his touch.

“Nice try,” he says. “But even your pathetic crystals are no match for my powers!”

Calum clenches his fists. It’s time for him to do something too. He takes a breath and teleports before he loses his nerve. A second later, he’s directly behind Chrysanthemum. Oh fuck, he’s right behind Chrysanthemum. He freezes, and it’s just long enough for Niall to look towards him with wide eyes.

Niall’s response unfortunately alerts Chrysanthemum, who whirls around to see Calum. Calum grabs at Chrysanthemum, but he’s too late. The villain stoops to pick up the sign again and swings it at Calum.

Calum struggles through his panic to teleport, but only manages it after being struck in the ribs by the flat metal of the sign. He groans and collapses to the ground across the street from Chrysanthemum and Niall. All the wind has been knocked out of his chest from the impact.

“Right,” he wheezes. “That didn’t work.”

“Hey,” yet another new voice says, from just behind Calum. “You— you alright, mate? That looked like it hurt something terrible.”

Calum rolls over onto his back to look up at the newcomer. He’s relieved to see it’s someone like him and Luke and Niall, instead of a random bystander. This guy’s flower is something pink, and so is his glittery skirt. Calum’s face heats up when he realizes he’s lying on the ground and staring up at an angle where he could sort of be looking up the guy’s skirt. He quickly averts his gaze and rolls back to push himself up.

“Careful,” the new guy says. “Here, lemme help.” 

Calum feels the guy’s hands grip his arms to guide him back up. As he gets back on his feet, he notices glittery pink sparks lighting up and traveling all over his body. Calum holds still, watching in awe as they glimmer and move. A split second later, he realizes the pain from getting hit by the sign is receding.

“Is that you?” Calum asks in a whisper.

“Yeah, I uh,” the new guy takes one hand off Calum and wiggles his fingers. A few pink sparks linger on his fingertips. “Healing. My flower’s a peony.”

“Calum!” Luke’s running across the crystal-strewn battlefield to them. “You alright? You took a crazy hit!”

“Yeah,” Calum says. “I’m better now.” The new guy lets him go and Calum sort of misses his touch. Just because of the healing, definitely. He feels great right now. Maybe he’s imagining it, but it’s like the magic force inside him has been recharged. Or something.

Luke and the new guy square each other up. “Who’re you?” Luke asks.

“Ashton. I’ve got—”

“Healing powers,” Luke answers. Then he blanches. “Sorry, I uh, can read minds. I’ll try not to snoop or anything. It’s easy, I just sort of… concentrate on someone and I can hear their thoughts.”

“It’s not just healing that I’ve got,” Ashton says. “I can also—”

All of a sudden, there’s a loud crashing noise from across the street and the three of them jump in surprise. Calum looks out at the scene before him. More broken crystals than before litter the ground, along with the crumbled remains of the side of the nearest building. It looks like Niall grew a crystal that shoved Chrysanthemum into the brick wall of the building, which the villain then demolished part way before realizing he could potentially crush himself doing so. Niall’s currently dodging chunks of brick that Chrysanthemum is throwing at him, yelling indistinctly at the villain.

“We need to help Niall,” Calum says. 

“How— oh that’s a— how on earth did your flower _tell_ you that?” Luke says, turning to Ashton and staring open-mouthed. “Can they talk to us? Why won’t mine do that?”

Ashton covers his forehead and Luke backs away a few steps. “I don’t know!” Ashton says. “That’s— I’m guessing you’re talking about—”

“What’s going on?” Calum says. 

“I accidentally read Ashton’s mind,” Luke says. 

“I know how to make the flower force leave someone,” Ashton adds. “In theory, anyway; this is the first time I’ve… transformed into this,” he gestures at the skirt and tights. Calum’s gaze goes back to Ashton’s thighs. He has nice thighs. As nice as Luke’s, which, combined with the skirt—

“Calum!” Luke says, flustered.

“I’m sorry!” Calum says quickly. Think of something else. Anything that’s not hot guys in tights. Fuck, like… Like Niall, still fighting the Chrysanthemum guy. Who keeps threatening to turn them all into fertilizer or bury them all in rubble.

“Right,” Luke says quite firmly. “We need to help Niall defeat this Chrysanthemum. How do we de-flower— okay, I’m sorry, that came out wrong.”

Calum snickers. Ashton’s face breaks into a wide smile as well. “No, I like that, actually. I just need to get close to that guy, and I think I know how I’ll be able to do it.”

“You _think_?” Luke repeats.

Ashton nods, looking more confident. “I might need to—”

Another loud crash echoes from Niall and Chrysanthemum’s fight. Niall is starting to look a bit tired, although he’s managed to trap Chrysanthemum in multiple walls of crystal. Chrysanthemum is breaking through each wall, one by one. He looks enraged, and he’s still carrying a large chunk of brick wall from the building.

Calum teleports over to stand next to Niall. “We’ve got a plan,” he says.

Niall glances over at him. “What, we do? Who’s that?”

“We, um,” Calum points back towards Ashton and Luke. “Ashton can de-flower this guy, so all we need—”

“Wait, he can _what_?!” Niall exclaims. 

There’s no time to wait. Chrysanthemum breaks down the last wall and flings the chunks of brick at the two of them. Calum teleports Niall safely away. He’s getting a whole lot better at doing this. Maybe all those superhero stories actually _were_ right.

“It’s not—” Calum says. “He can un-supervillain him.”

Niall’s eyebrows shoot upwards. “How the fuck can he do that? That’s his power?”

“I know what you’re thinking!” Luke’s voice suddenly yells. 

Both Niall and Calum look over. Luke’s walking slowly towards Chrysanthemum, who has stopped throwing things for once. 

“Since you can’t use your power directly against people, you’re going to go and destroy everything they own,” Luke continues. “Your ex girlfriend and your brother and your old roommate. You’re going to ruin their homes, and their cars, and the places they love. But what have they really done to you though? Left you because you were a violent and self-absorbed piece of shit?!”

“Shut up!” Chrysanthemum roars. He grabs at a nearby car and it falls to rusted pieces. He makes to throw the door at Luke.

“We need to help him!” Niall says. He raises his arms in front of him and traps Chrysanthemum in a large pyramid of crystal, just like the ones he got himself stuck in earlier. 

“Look at what you’re doing now!” Luke yells. “Can’t you think of good things to be doing with your powers? You used to garden, why don’t you do that?”

“I don’t want to use my power for shit like that,” Chrysanthemum says, enraged. “Those bastards ruined my life! I’m going to ruin theirs now! I want revenge! What’s the point in having power if I can’t get what I want?”

He breaks through the crystal pyramid and Niall hastily builds another thick wall between him and Luke. Calum is almost too engrossed in the fight to notice Ashton quietly sneaking his way around the perimeter, avoiding stepping on broken pieces of metal and crystal. Right. This is probably a diversion. Calum teleports over to Ashton.

“Get me right behind him, as soon as he goes to break that crystal wall,” Ashton says. Calum nods.

“You don’t deserve your powers!” Luke says. “What about your mum, huh? What would she say about this?”

“Fuck you!” Chrysanthemum spits. He charges at the crystal wall. Calum grabs onto Ashton and teleports the two of them directly behind the villain. His heart is pounding as the crystal collapses into sand, barely two meters away from them. Ashton seems unaffected as he reaches out with a pink glowing hand presses it against Chrysanthemum’s back.

Chrysanthemum howls out loud and tries to twist away. Immediately, thick crystal walls grow up around the three of them, so close that they can barely move around. Calum wants to teleport out, but he manages to swallow down his fear. He reaches out to grab onto Chrysanthemum as well, keeping him in place so Ashton can do whatever he’s about to do.

A glowing orange image of a chrysanthemum appears on the villain’s back, as a glowing pink peony appears on Ashton’s chest. Calum stares, mesmerized. Ashton grits his teeth and shuts his eyes.

“NO!” Chrysanthemum screams. “STOP IT! MY POWER IS MINE!”

Calum watches in awe as the orange chrysanthemum’s petals close and it reverts back to a bud before disappearing. At once, their opponent is dressed in normal clothes again, still screaming his head off within the crystal prison.

“I did it,” Ashton whispers.

“You did it!” Calum says. 

“What’s that?” Niall’s voice echoes from outside.

“The plan worked,” Luke’s voice says. “You can let them go now.”

The purple walls shrink back down into the earth as Ashton and Calum let go. The former Chrysanthemum collapses to his knees, punching the ground in desperation. The four look at each other in shock. What do they do now? Talk to him?

The imminent arrival of the emergency vehicles makes the decision for Calum, at least. They’ve dealt with the threat, but he’s not terribly interested in being questioned by police while wearing what he’s wearing right now. Calum teleports Ashton back to Luke and Niall, and then the four of them to the edge of the park.

“We should get out of here,” Niall says. He shuts his eyes there’s a bright flash of purple light, and then he’s back in regular clothes. Calum concentrates on the force inside him and wills it to calm down. He gets the same whirlwind sensation from earlier, accompanied by a yellow-green flash of light, and then he’s also back in the clothes he was wearing before. Luke and Ashton also follow suit. They all hurry back into the park, making it safely past the cover of trees before the police cars show up.

“Glad we all ran into each other,” Niall says. “We couldn’t have stopped that guy, just one of us. I know I couldn’t.” He fidgets a little and smiles. “I didn’t know there were others, you know, with these powers.”

“We know of someone else,” Calum says, nodding at Luke. “He’s… somewhere.” 

“Hey, we should exchange numbers,” Ashton says, “In case any of us run into something like this again, we can contact each other.”

Luke gives Calum a knowing look. “Yeah, I think Calum’s extra excited to get your number Ash—”

“Shut up, Luke!” Calum says, shoving him in the side.

Niall bursts out laughing. “I love you guys already. Can’t wait to do this again.”


	2. 3 v 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zayn has no idea what his powers are. That's not going to stop him from trying to help.

It’s been exactly one week since Zayn was approached by a glowing yellow ball of energy that unceremoniously gave him superpowers. In all that time, he’s had yet to figure out exactly what superpowers he has, or how to use them. Not for lack of trying, of course. It’s just all a mystery. All he knows is that his magic flower is a rose, that there are other people chosen by other magic flowers out there, and that he should use his powers for good.

The magic rose didn’t tell him the last thing, but Zayn knows that’s how it’s supposed to go. He’s supposed to fight crime or injustice in the world. And keep it a secret— except he told his family right away. He’s not sure they believe him yet, but he’d never be able to keep something this cool a secret from them.

He’s lying on his bed in his dorm, trying his best to focus on the faint sensation of power deep in his chest. Zayn is sure that there’s got to be some trick to access his powers, but for now it isn’t working. Every time he thinks he’s got it, the power shys away from him.

“One more time,” he says to the empty room. “Come on.” He closes his eyes and puts a hand over his heart. The feeling of power slowly starts to pulse along with his heartbeat. Zayn tries matching his breathing to it.

And then, the power expands all at once like an explosion. Zayn’s eyes snap open and he gasps, temporarily blinded by a flash of yellow light. His whole body is enveloped in warmth from the magic running through him. 

He falls off the bed, landing on the floor with a thud.

The light dies away. Zayn blinks back spots in his eyes and realizes he feels a bit different. Not just from the fact that the power feels closer and more accessible than ever. But… he feels like he’s wearing something— something on his face?

He stands up and feels his face. Yeah, he’s got a mask there. Also, what the hell happened to his clothes? Zayn looks down to check on that next.

Alright… that’s definitely a miniskirt. And tights. 

Okay, he can roll with that as long as he can use his powers. Zayn tries to concentrate and focus on the power inside him, which feels like it’s vibrating through every inch of his body.

And nothing happens.

“What do I need to do!” he says, frustrated. He crosses his arms and turns to glare at his reflection in his window.

As he does so, he sees something— no… was that a person?— fly past the window.

Zayn’s eyes go wide. He hurries to the window to throw it open. Sticking his head out, he leans and looks in the direction the unidentified flying something went. 

It’s definitely a person. And somehow they’re _jumping_ to ridiculous heights, landing and bouncing right back up again like a human rubber ball. It’s like something out of a bloody cartoon. Zayn watches for a few moments, stunned. 

A distant, but very loud metallic smashing noise startles him out of his trance. Zayn tears his eyes away from the bouncing person and finds the source of the noise a few seconds later. There’s a cloud of dust rising from a car on the street. It looks bad. Someone should help.

Wait… should _he_ help? Is this— did the magic rose transform him to do something about that?

Zayn tries reaching for his powers again, while staring at the cloud of dust in the distance. Oddly, the cloud isn’t thinning out. Zayn clenches a fist over his chest and tries concentrating harder.

Suddenly a huge fireball erupts right next to the cloud of dust. 

“Shit,” Zayn says. He turns and runs to his door. He can work on figuring out his powers on the go. 

He nearly trips running down the stairs and passes by a few people who pause to take second glances at him, but he doesn’t stop. He bursts out the door at the ground floor and takes off down the sidewalk in the direction of whatever’s going on. Zayn squints at the chaos ahead as he runs. Flames are curling high above the cloud of smoke, which is behaving rather strangely. 

There’s enough people gathered at a safe distance from whatever’s going on that it’s a bit difficult making his way through. Zayn excuses himself as he wedges his way in between people to get a better look.

Okay.

So there are two people standing facing each other while another person is bouncing and laughing maniacally on top of a crushed car, and yet another person has an ATM on their back. Like, they’re actually carrying a whole ATM. Zayn is so astonished that it takes him a moment to notice that everyone is dressed in miniskirts like him.

Huh. That’s probably an indicator. They’re like him, transformed into something by some mysterious magical flower? And they’ve worked out their powers, it seems.

As Zayn takes it all in, one of the people throws his hands up in the air and _fire_ appears at his fingertips, quickly amassing into a large rolling ball of fire. The guy brings his arms swinging down and the fire drops with the motion, crashing down like a tidal wave towards the other person.

“Look out!” Zayn exclaims, as the people beside him scream out in shock.

The fireball spreads out as it strikes its target. Zayn breaks away from the crowd, charging into the midst of the fight. There’s got to be something he can do. He’s got powers like those too, right? As he’s thinking this, he sees the fire ebbing away, smoke curling in its place. 

No… that’s not smoke. Zayn falters to a stop, squinting for a better look. What appeared to be smoke is actually… a dust cloud? Glittery dust, rolling like a sentient storm cloud around a woman in a light purple skirt speckled with shining silver. She opens her mouth and says something that Zayn doesn’t hear, because all of a sudden, blood is rushing in his ears as he finds himself on the ground, stunned from a sudden strike to his side. 

Another woman— this one in a yellow and pink skirt— is standing above him. She crosses her arms with a confident smirk. 

“So whose side are you on?” she says. She jerks her head to the side, in the direction of the fight Zayn was watching. “His side?”

Zayn tries to catch his breath. “I just got here,” he says. 

“And what are you planning on doing?” she says. “Hm? Rose boy?” She crouches slightly and then bounces up into the air, defying the pull of gravity and doing a backflip before falling back down onto the ground, uncomfortably close to Zayn. 

Panicking, Zayn scrambles back, away from her. “I just— I—” He forgets what measly explanation he’s trying for as a huge fireball comes barreling towards him and the woman. The woman just makes a tutting noise and bounces high out of the way of the fire. Zayn throws his arms over his face and shuts his eyes with a wince. There’s nowhere near enough time for him to get out of the way, but maybe it won’t hurt too badly?

But instead of being struck by fire, Zayn feels a cold mist spray all over him. He peeks past his crossed arms and sees a new person in front of him, his arms raised high and a wall of something clearish blue— ice?— blocking the fire. 

The person turns around and crouches down next to Zayn. He’s in a pink and blue skirt, with flowers that Zayn doesn’t recognize printed all over his shirt. He reaches out to help Zayn up. 

“Are you alright?” he says.

Zayn nods slowly, taking the guy’s hand.

The two of them get to their feet and Zayn reluctantly lets go of the other guy’s hand. He’s pretty strong. Like a proper superhero, actually. “Thanks,” Zayn says.

The other guy smiles at him. He’s got a really cute smile, Zayn thinks. There are still sounds of roaring fire and things getting broken from the other side of the ice wall, but Zayn’s fine with ignoring that for the moment. 

“Uh,” Zayn says eloquently. “So um… you just showed up here?” 

Wow, he deserves an award for that. Was that supposed to be a line or a genuine question? Zayn’s not even sure himself. It should be the latter, but… the guy is really attractive. Then again, Zayn has no idea what the other guy is doing here— he could be with the dangerous fire guy or with the person stealing an ATM. 

“I— yeah?” the other guy says, shuffling awkwardly. “I’m Liam. I just— I transformed when I saw something was going on. I didn’t want anyone getting hurt, if I could help it.”

Oh bloody hell he’s an actual nice guy. Zayn can’t believe it. Whatever else is going on, he’s definitely siding with this guy. He kind of stares at him in awe for a moment too long before he realizes he hasn’t introduced himself. “I’m Zayn,” he says. “I, um, I’m not sure what my powers are, but I’ll figure them out.”

Liam nods. “Okay. Uh. I’ve got— yeah, my powers are ice. As you can see. So… well, until you figure out yours, just stay behind me.”

Another fireball pounds against the ice wall, sending another rain of mist down on them. Liam turns around to lift up his hands. Zayn watches, amazed, as another thick layer of ice builds up against the first, reinforcing it.

Just in time too, because as the ice is solidifying, something huge smashes into it, creating a spiderweb of cracks. Zayn jumps backwards but Liam barely moves. His hands clench into fists and the object that crashed into the ice wall stays there, swallowed up by layer after layer of ice.

“Okay,” Liam says. He reaches back to grab Zayn’s hand and they run around Liam’s protective wall. Turns out the object that smashed into the wall was a concrete waste bin. Terrifying.

The guy with fire powers is wildly flinging fireballs at the other three. The one who can manipulate the glittery cloud is using her powers to protect herself and the one with the ATM, while the bouncing one is just avoiding each fireball with well-timed jumps. Both sides are audibly yelling taunts at each other, although Zayn can’t quite make out exactly what they’re saying. Zayn’s still not sure what’s going on, but… well, the other three seem to be on the same side, and they’re carrying a stolen ATM. 

“Are we helping him?” Zayn says, pointing to the fire guy.

Liam lets go of Zayn and, with a sweeping motion of his hands, builds a tall wall of ice around them and the other four, separating them all from the distant onlookers. It’s a bit like an arena, keeping them all in and all the people without powers out.

“They’re going to hurt someone if we don’t stop them,” Liam says. 

“You’re planning on fighting _all_ of them?” Zayn says. He flinches as the other four turn to look at them. The one carrying the ATM drops it and lifts up a car. In her hands. She doesn’t even look like she’s straining from the effort. Zayn slides to stand directly behind Liam. 

“Oi!” the guy with the fire powers yells. “What’re you two up to? This ice from you?”

“You’re about to get someone hurt throwing fire all over the place!” Liam yells back. 

“What, you’ve got a better way of stopping them?” The guy’s hands light up with two more balls of fire and— to Zayn’s shock— he throws them straight at Liam.

Liam stops them easily with a quickly constructed wall of ice. Several more fireballs slam against the wall one after another. Liam leaves Zayn behind the wall and runs around it; Zayn peeks out to see Liam building new ice walls around the fire guy. Liam’s opponent isn’t having it, and surrounds himself in his own walls made of fire. The heat is so intense that Zayn can feel it from where he’s standing. In fact, the ice wall he’s hiding behind is practically pouring sheets of water off it as it melts. 

Liam tries making walls of ice around the guy again, but his powers are fairly useless against the fire. Fortunately, the fire is likewise useless against Liam’s ice. 

However… there’s more than just Liam and the fire guy here.

Zayn suddenly remembers the other three super-flower-villains and the fact that they all probably collaborated to rip an ATM out of the ground and run off with it. But when he looks at the place where the other three were just moments ago, he’s just in time to see the one in a white and green skirt smash straight through the wall of ice with the car she’d picked up. She then quickly hefts up the ATM again, and the three escape through the hole.

“Liam!” Zayn yells. Liam doesn’t respond, running towards the fire guy and dousing a wave of fire with a thin sheet of ice. “LIAM! Those other three escaped!”

“What?” Liam says, turning away from the fire guy to look and find the hole in the ice.

“What? FUCK!” the fire guy yells. Fire erupts in twin columns beside him as he punches the air. “Fuck! Fuck! Shit! Fuck! This is your fault!” He points at Liam and the columns of fire twist together into a swirling tornado of fire that flies straight at Liam.

Zayn’s heart jumps, but Liam takes care of the fire quickly with his ice powers. “My fault? You’re the one throwing fire everywhere and putting everyone in danger—”

“I had to stop them somehow! I can’t build nice little icy walls like you, now can I? Speaking of, looks like this one wasn’t thick enough. Or high enough. That Lollipop girl probably could have jumped clear over it. Beautiful work there,” he finishes, his tone layered with sarcasm.

“Lollipop?” Zayn repeats.

The fire guy crosses his arms, looking annoyed. “You weren’t here when they first started—”

The sound of sirens suddenly cuts through the space, causing the arguing to stop. The fire guy’s face tightens in an anxious expression. 

“We should get out of here,” Zayn says. Liam looks like he might protest, so he reaches out and grabs Liam’s sleeve. “If they show up and find only us here, they’re going to blame _us_, no matter what we tell them.”

Liam goes pale. “Right.” 

Liam and Zayn go running for the nearest ice wall. As they reach it, Zayn notices the guy with the fire powers has joined them. Liam stops and looks at him. 

“You’re not coming with us,” he says. 

“Yes I am,” fire guy says stubbornly. “You don’t know where they’re going. I do.”

“No you don’t,” Liam says.

Zayn rolls his eyes. “Can you two argue later? We need to get out of here _now_.”

Liam and the other guy look like they wouldn’t mind sticking around to bicker with each other. Zayn groans and grabs both of their hands. The guy with fire powers seems startled, but he goes along and actually raises his free arm to make a fireball to melt them all an escape hole. 

There are still a lot of people gathered around the ice, but they move out of the way when Zayn, Liam, and the other guy come out running. There’s some murmuring and a couple phones pointed at them, so Zayn puts on an extra burst of speed and hopes the mask covers as much of his face as it feels like. Maybe his family would recognize him in this outfit, but if the pictures are blurry enough, nobody else will.

“It’s not far from here,” the other guy says.

The sirens are getting uncomfortably close. Zayn hesitates, and then pulls both of the two back in the direction of his dorm. “Come on,” he says. “I’ve got a way to get us there faster. I’ll, uh, I’ll need you to navigate… um… ?”

“Louis,” the guy says. He shoots a challenging look at Liam. “My name’s Louis. You aren’t going to turn me in the moment this is over, are you? I’m _helping_.”

“No, we won’t,” Zayn promises. As they’re running, he takes a second to look at Louis and his costume more properly. His skirt is colored in teal and black— if Zayn hadn’t seen him throwing so much fire around, he wouldn’t have expected his powers to be fire-based. Liam’s baby blue and pink isn’t exactly ice-themed either.

“So! The stuck-up prick’s an icy bastard—” Louis says cheerily.

“Hey!” Liam says.

“He’s Liam,” Zayn says. “And he was just looking out for everyone. All those people getting too close to that fight back there.”

Liam mutters something under his breath.

“So what’re you?” Louis says, ignoring Liam for the moment. “I didn’t see your power.”

Zayn bites his lip as they reach his dorm building. His motorcycle is just a short distance away. He grabs at his sides and, to his relief, finds his keys in a pocket in his flowery shirt. At least that’s one thing his magic rose has done to help him out.

But yeah, he needs to respond to Louis. Zayn avoids looking at him as he answers. “I, um. I don’t know. Yet.”

Louis’s quiet for a second. Then he bursts out laughing. “What, you don’t know your own name yet?”

“No, I mean— My name’s Zayn, but—”

“I know what you mean, I’m just teasing,” Louis says, reaching out to mess with Zayn’s hair. Zayn leans away and tries to fix it, a smile spreading across his face. “Nice to meet you Zayn. And Liam too, I guess. Glad we’re not fighting each other in the middle of the street anymore. So I’m guessing your flower didn’t tell you first thing?”

“Did yours?” Zayn says. 

“Yeah,” Louis says. “Mine’s an orchid, told me I’ve got the power to make fire. And that there’s some dreadful bad flowers out there too.”

“My hydrangea did as well,” Liam says.

Zayn can’t help the indignant gasp at that revelation. “Why didn’t mine?”

“S’a mystery we’ll have to solve later,” Louis says. He starts bouncing on his feet. “We all riding on that? Those Lilies said they were going to the ATM at the market square next, when I stopped them. They’re probably nearly there by now.”

“You think they’re still planning on going there?” Liam says.

Louis shrugs. “Why wouldn’t they? We weren’t able to stop them just now. Thanks a lot for that, Liam. Your help was exactly what they needed to get away.”

“I had no way of knowing you weren’t out to cause trouble too!” Liam defends.

“Oh, I might just have to cause trouble just for that,” Louis snaps back, although he’s got a grin on his face, so Zayn’s pretty sure he’s not serious. Or… not too serious. But Louis had a point; they’re wasting time.

Zayn climbs onto his motorcycle and starts the engine to discourage further argument. A moment later, Louis climbs on after him, clinging to his waist and resting his chin on Zayn’s shoulder. Liam’s arms come around both of them, and Zayn’s heart jumps a bit at the contact. Next time— if there _is_ a next time— he needs to wear a jacket so Liam and Louis won’t feel him go so tense where they’re touching him.

“I forgot my helmet,” Zayn says, still not moving from where the motorcycle’s parked.

“We’ll be alright, love,” Louis tells him, squeezing his waist a little tighter. “Just don’t crash, or I’ll haunt your pretty little ghost forever.”

Zayn takes off, extremely grateful for two things. One, that he’s got tights on underneath the skirt— although it’s still kind of awkward driving his motorcycle in his superhero outfit. And two, that neither Liam nor Louis can see how flustered the combination of the outfit and Louis (and Liam)’s clinginess is making him. Louis keeps leaning forward and pointing out where they need to go, pressing his chest even closer against Zayn’s back with each movement. Zayn would love nothing more than to bury his face in a pillow or something but unfortunately, he’s the one driving.

“Louis, you were fighting them before we showed up,” Liam yells over the noise of the engine. “What are their powers, exactly?”

“So there’s Lollipop Lily,” Louis shouts back. “She’s the bouncy one. It’s right impossible to land a hit on her. Then Casablanca Lily’s the one who’s got super strength. Watch out for what she throws at you. Nearly got flattened before you two showed up. And Stargazer Lily’s the leader. She’s got— it’s sort of like us, Liam, but it’s this sparkly dust. She can make it and move it around, and it can push away my fire. I’m not sure how it works, or what else it can do.”

They have to stop for a red light and Zayn tries to keep his gaze focused ahead of him. People on either side are staring and Zayn is so damn thankful for the mask. Nobody should recognize him, he keeps reminding himself. If he’s lucky— and if this doesn’t take too long or cause too much damage— they won’t even be on the news.

“How are we going to handle this?” Liam muses. “I suppose I can— well, I don’t want to hurt anyone. And I don’t want to fight a girl.”

Louis scoffs. “Believe me, they’re more than willing to hurt us. Can you freeze the three of them in a block of ice?”

“I don’t want to do that!” Liam says, sounding horrified.

“Keep it in mind for Plan B?” Louis presses. 

“How about no?” Liam says firmly.

Zayn bites his lip. “I might have an idea,” he says, thoughts brewing in his mind. The light changes at that moment though, so he doesn’t get a chance to explain.

It’s pretty clear when they reach the market. Traffic has stopped again, and people are crowding and standing around, frustrating motorists and pedestrians alike. Liam and Louis jump off the motorcycle before Zayn can park it, and it takes him a moment to find a good safe place to leave it. By the time he catches up, Liam and Louis have thrown themselves into a new superpowered fight with the Lilies.

Zayn hovers at the edge of the fight again, watching so he can figure out what’s going on. Liam and Louis aren’t coordinated at all, and their attacks collide twice in a matter of seconds, but at least they aren’t fighting each other anymore. But they’ve each taken on the wrong villains. Liam’s trying to chase Lollipop Lily’s rapid bounces with his ice obstacles while Louis’s throwing fireballs at Stargazer Lily and narrowly avoiding the things Casablanca Lily’s throwing at him. Zayn’s heart jumps into his throat when Casablanca nearly clips Louis with another waste bin.

He needs to do something. Something besides just watching from the sidelines.

Zayn clenches his fists and tries again to feel that sensation of power in him. His eyes close again as the power seems to respond, in a way. It feels like it’s building gradually, gradually…

“Zayn look out!”

Zayn’s eyes open and he sees Louis and Liam both lunging at him, each of them throwing up a wall behind them of their respective elements. They both reach him at the same time, grabbing him and pushing him down just as something large and heavy smashes through Liam’s ice and sails over their heads. There’s a huge crash as it impacts against the building behind Zayn. It’s half of the ATM from earlier, Zayn realises as soon as he looks back. Clearly, while they were making their way here, Casablanca ripped it in half like it was made of paper.

“That was close,” Liam says, panting. He helps Zayn up again as Louis jumps to his feet and throws a huge fireball back at the Lilies. 

“My powers still aren’t working,” Zayn says, frustrated. 

Liam looks apologetic. Louis meanwhile creates a rippling wave of fire, which Stargazer blocks with her glittery cloud powers. 

“Sorry,” Liam says. “I promise, we’ll work on figuring your powers out after this. Maybe being in a fight will help spark something?”

Zayn certainly hopes so. He feels kind of useless.

“Zayn, you said you had an idea, didn’t you?” Louis says, as if he’s hearing the gloomy thoughts running through Zayn’s mind.

Zayn blinks and nods. Right. His plan. He turns it over in his head again and, okay it’s a bit simple, but it’s worth a shot. “Liam, can you freeze the ground? Put a whole lot of ice all over everywhere. It’ll slow them down if everything’s all slippery.”

Louis’s face lights up and Liam’s scrunches up in concentration. 

“Zayn that’s brilliant!” Louis says.

“I’ll see if it’ll work,” Liam says. 

The three turn to face the Lilies. Stargazer is striding their way confidently, with the other two behind her in formation. 

“Look,” Stargazer says. “Just leave us alone and we won’t hurt you. We’ve got no problems with you three. And it’s not like we’re stealing _that_ much. And as long as nobody gets in our way, nobody has to get hurt. Otherwise…”

Casablanca pauses to grab a car, lift it off the ground, and slams it back so hard the ground shakes. She cackles with clearly practiced laughter. It’s like a cartoon villain, honestly.

“Got it?” Stargazer says with an evil little smile.

“Thanks for the offer, but fuck off,” Louis says hotly.

Liam drops into a crouch and plants both of his hands against the ground. A thick layer of ice spreads out rapidly from the point of contact. The Lilies jump back in surprise, just as the ice reaches their feet. Lollipop immediately slips and falls onto her back, and Casablanca and Stargazer both stumble. The ice sheet spreads and spreads until it’s encompassed almost the entire square.

“Perfect!” Zayn exclaims. “Now Louis, don’t melt it.”

“I’ll try not to,” Louis says. His hands light up with flames and he charges at Stargazer, who’s already using her glitter cloud to hover above the ice. Casablanca is attempting to help Lollipop to her feet, but both of them slip and crash back onto the ground a second later. 

“Alright, we’ve slowed them down. What now?” Liam says to Zayn.

The sound of sirens approaching again is enough of an answer for Zayn. “We keep them here long enough for _them_ to arrive,” he tells Liam. “Simple, right?”

Liam smiles back at Zayn. “That’s clever of you. I probably would have— well, I imagine I likely would have complicated it quite a bit. Your plan’s a good one.”

Zayn flushes. “Uh, I mean— Since I can’t help out with, powers or anything—”

Thankfully, a loud cracking noise prevents Zayn from making a complete fool of himself. Liam and Zayn both turn away from each other to see that Casablanca’s punching at the ice to break it apart. Liam drops back down to re-freeze the ground. Then, as Lollipop’s trying to shuffle over to a nearby car, presumably to use it as a springboard, Liam covers everything around the two in a thick layer of ice.

Casablanca looks up with a murderous expression. “I’m going to rip the two of you apart,” she hisses. “You fuckers. You motherfuckers.”

“You think you’re safe over there,” Lollipop says. “Just wait. We’re going to crush you.”

Nervous, Zayn grabs Liam and drags him back, putting extra distance between them and the Lilies. Once they’re back a bit, Liam kneels down and puts down more layers of ice everywhere.

“It’s going to be hell for the owners of those cars to get them out later,” Zayn says as Liam’s ice swallows up another hatchback.

Liam stops, looking guilty, so Zayn quickly adds, “But it’s better than those two going and destroying more things, right? Or hurting people? There’s plenty of witnesses to confirm it’s those two that’re responsible for all the damages.”

“But…” Liam says. “I’m responsible too.”

Zayn can’t do this right now. He leaves Liam to keep Lollipop and Casablanca down and seeks out where Louis and Stargazer are engaged in combat on the other side of the square. It’s not looking good: Stargazer is safely hovering above the ice with her powers and batting away any and all fireballs Louis can throw at her. Louis and Stargazer are back to yelling incomprehensibly at each other.

“Any ideas on how we’re going to deal with the last one?” Zayn asks Liam.

“I don’t know,” Liam says. “I’d try freezing her cloud, but I think I have to be closer to catch it. And I don’t want to hurt her—”

Zayn frowns, looking around to see if there’s something that can help. He notices with a start that a police car has arrived already, pushing its way through the crowd. The car drives straight into the market square… and immediately slides on the ice, slipping forward until the front end of the car crashes into Casablanca. 

The woman groans and slumps heavily down onto the ice, her eyes sliding shut. 

Zayn and Liam both stare in open-mouthed shock. So does Lollipop, who crawls over to Casablanca shrieking in a panic. The cop jumps out of his car and also promptly slips on the ice, falling forwards, right onto his face. Zayn might be laughing if he wasn’t still so nervous about getting too close to Casablanca and Lollipop.

“We should get out of here now,” Zayn says, grabbing Liam’s hand and dragging him away before he can go and apologize and get them all arrested as well.

“But—” Liam says. “I don’t know if they’re alright—”

“We can’t help here anymore,” Zayn points out. He whirls back to look across the square. “LOUIS!” he yells. 

Louis’s still trying and failing to fight Stargazer. At Zayn’s shout, he turns away from her for just a moment. It’s long enough for the villain to use her powers to wrap Louis up into a glittery cloud and hurl him across the square. 

“NO!” Liam yells. Moving faster than Zayn thought he could, he uses his ice to build himself up on a small platform. He builds it up just in time to catch a very disoriented Louis, nearly falling backwards off his own platform. Louis instinctively grabs onto Liam, blinking in surprise. Liam slides off the platform back to the ground, still holding Louis. 

“We need to leave,” Zayn urges them. Liam sets Louis down on the ground, both of them shaking slightly. Louis looks across the square, but Stargazer’s no longer around. The cop and his partner have both reached Lollipop and Casablanca and it looks like backup is arriving, so at least that’s taken care of. 

The three of them hurry back through the crowd to Zayn’s motorcycle. It’s much easier leaving than it was arriving, but Zayn still doesn’t feel like they’ve gotten safely away until they’re back on his university campus and in his dorm building. He pulls Louis and Liam into the deserted stairwell and together, they transform back. 

And oh fuck, both of them are just as attractive in their normal appearances. Zayn swallows back the comments he wants to make and focuses on taking them up to his dorm.

“Taking us home already, on the first date?” Louis teases loudly as Zayn’s unlocking his dorm. 

Zayn’s at a loss for words. Thankfully, Liam smacks Louis’s arm and says, “That’s not— we’re _strategizing_, Louis. We’ve promised to help Zayn with his powers, remember? And Stargazer Lily got away— that can’t be the last we’ve seen of her.”

The three of them walk into Zayn’s dorm. He’s a little self-conscious of all the art supplies and books and things scattered everywhere, especially with how Louis starts walking around and looking at everything with no shame and Liam stands in the center of the room pretending he’s not looking around too. 

“I only have one chair,” Zayn says. 

“I’ll stand,” Liam offers.

Louis just sits right down on the floor. 

Zayn hesitates, and then shakes his head. “We can all sit on the bed, if that’s alright.”

Louis gets a gleam in his eyes and springs up to grab Liam and drag him onto the bed before he can protest. There’s not much space in between them, but Zayn already said they could sit on the bed, so he squeezes into the tiny space anyway. Right away, Louis puts an arm around his shoulder. Liam sort of leans into his space too, and it’s nice. Zayn takes a few deep breaths and allows himself to relax. They’re friends now— or at least they will be soon. They got through a fight with three supervillains together, and that’s a hell of a start to their time together. 

“So, your powers,” Liam says.

“Whoa, slow down there, Mister Serious,” Louis says, leaning over Zayn to poke at Liam. “Why don’t we get to know each other first? Zayn here’s brought us home, we ought to at least let him know we aren’t serial murderers.”

Liam gapes at Louis. Zayn’s not sure what to say. 

“I’m not— I’m just— why would you think—”

Louis cackles. “Calm down, Liam. I don’t think you’re a serial murderer. I don’t think your lovely flower would have picked you if you were. Bet it saw you and thought ‘oh here’s the sweetest boy in the world, I’d best give him bloody ice powers’ or summat.”

Zayn’s gaze drops to the floor. “Well, those Lilies picked those girls who decided to do all that.”

Silence falls between the three of them. Then Louis nudges Zayn. 

“Hey, you heard about what happened about five days ago?” he says. 

Zayn tilts his head in confusion. 

Louis leans closer with a smile. “There was this whole commotion down near a park somewhere. When the police got there, there was just a bunch of weird crystals everywhere and this man suspected to have done a lot of property damage. Didn’t say much officially, but I read some comments from people who’d been around there. And guess what they saw?”

Zayn and Liam exchange glances. “Another...?” Liam says in a whisper.

“Another hero sort, like us,” Louis says. “So if Stargazer Lily shows up again, or if Casablanca and Lollipop break out, or if any other bad flowers turn up—”

“Bad flowers?” Zayn interrupts. “Is that what we’re calling them?”

“Yes,” Louis declares. “But no matter what, we can take care of them. Or whoever this other hero is, they can help too.” 

“We might run into them soon,” Liam says. 

Zayn feels hopeful. Once again, the sensation of power in his chest starts to thrum along with his heartbeat. He presses his lips together tightly and tries to concentrate on it again, hoping—

He transforms again in a bright flash of yellow light.

Liam and Louis both look surprised. “What’re you doing?” Liam says.

“Sorry,” Zayn says. “I was— I was trying to—”

“Your powers?” Louis says. There’s a flash of teal light and he’s back in his miniskirt too, hopping off the bed. A moment later, Liam’s transformed again too. 

“What can we do to help?” Liam says, looking determined. 

Zayn puts a hand on his chest, but the sensation of power just feels like it’s sitting stagnant. “I don’t know… how’d you get your powers to work?”

Louis shrugs. “Sorta came easy and natural? Mine’s fire, and it’s like a warm feeling all over. Just had to push on it a little, and it comes out like this,” he holds a palm up and a small ball of flame appears in his hand. A second later, it vanishes.

Liam fidgets. “I, um. My hydrangea told me to sort of concentrate. Think of what I want to make in my head, feed it the power I can feel in me, and it happens.”

Zayn tries concentrating on the power inside him. It beats along with his heart, but it feels like it’s growing weaker by the moment. As the seconds pass, it continues to fade until it’s back to just a dormant ball of energy sitting in his chest. “I don’t think it’s working,” he says. “I can feel it, but it’s— earlier, it felt stronger but now it’s just there, not doing anything.”

Louis jumps back up onto the bed. “Maybe you need to be in a fight to get it out?”

Zayn tries not to start pacing. “I was just in a fight and it wasn’t working.”

“You were also under a lot of pressure at the time,” Liam points out. “Having your life threatened and all. How about this: since we’re all tired from that, we can meet up again tomorrow and see if we can get it to work then? Maybe not in the middle of your university, just in case.”

Zayn transforms back. “I’ve got class tomorrow morning. You could meet back here for tea?”

Liam and Louis transform back as well. “Yeah,” Louis says. He bounds forwards and pulls the three of them into a tight group hug. “We’re gonna be a proper bouquet of superheroes, the three of us.”

Liam groans and tries to push Louis away, but Zayn laughs and puts his arms around him and Louis, hugging them back.

**Author's Note:**

> basically I have keith to thank for helping me develop this idea, and matt + hazel to thank for encouraging me to write 5sos and 1D when Id never written them before. I love you three and I hope you have as much fun as I do with this cute little flowery thing :D


End file.
